Kang-Kuen Ni, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University, has received the New Horizons in Physics Prize from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. The New Horizons prizes are awarded to early-career scientists who have made significant contributions to the fields of fundamental physics, life science, and mathematics.
Professor Ni was recognized for the development of optical tweezer arrays to realize control of individual atoms for applications in quantum information science, metrology, and molecular physics.
Dr. Ni joined Harvard as an assistant professor in 2013. She was promoted to full professor in 2021.
Professor Ni obtained her bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbar. She holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her doctoral dissertation described the first experimental realization of an ultra-cold, near-quantum-degenerate gas of polar molecules.